Stephenie Meyer owns the Twilight Saga. I own twitchy fingers that enjoy writing for no profit
Chapter 7: Grilled Cheese and Gossip
Bella POV
As it turned out, I was right. I didn't avoid the 'Alone in the forest' nightmare, in fact if anything it was worse. The entire time I was chasing Him I could feel someone or something watching me. Not helping, not caring, not even following me as far as I could hear, just watching. It added a sinister tension to the dream that made my dream self's skin crawl, adding that to the already overpowering terror and loneliness. As had become my usual, I woke screaming, and Charlie came in to calm me down.
"Sorry, Dad. I was fairly sure this'd happen, but I was hoping..." I said wearily to him as he rhythmically rubbed my back.
"It's ok, Bells." He whispered. "We knew not to expect too much. The dreams will fade out before long I'm sure. But for tonight, you've had your dose, so you lie back down and try to get some proper sleep now." I shuffled down under my covers, nodding sleepily and was already asleep before he left my room to return to his.
My next dream found me once again in the ancient village of La Push. I was once again dressed in traditional Quileute clothing, but this time while it was me doing the domestic chores, it was also not me, in that way that only dreams can manage to convey. I watched as me/not me sat skinning a deer carcass and the violence started in the background. Victoria, all wild and unkempt was once again slaughtering her way across the village, and with my knew awareness about what this dream meant, I wondered. "Where are the wolves? Why aren't they protecting their tribe, their families?" Then I saw on the ground, a giant wolf, covered in blood and twitching in his final death throes. "Oh God, there was only one left, and she's killed him."
From behind me I heard a terrible half human growling noise, and I turned to see an old man, shaking all over and before I could move towards him to help, he burst apart and instead there stood a huge, silvery grey wolf. He threw himself at Victoria, snarling and snapping and biting at her, but he was so far past his prime, I couldn't see how he could possibly survive, let alone defeat the feral female. Sure enough, she was soon no longer defending, but on the attack, and clearly winning if the yelps of pain from the wolf were any indication. "Time for the sacrifice again then." I thought as once more me/not me raised my knife to plunge into my own heart. But this time I paused with the knife point touching my skin. Instead of stabbing straight through this time, me/not me simply dragged the knife across the skin and muscle of my chest, great rivers of blood flowing behind the path of the blade, but this time it wasn't a fatal wound.
"Victoria" I called in an almost seductive voice, and sure enough she turned, her nostrils flaring at the scent of fresh flowing blood. She took a step towards me, then another, then all out ran to grab my neck and plunge her teeth into the other side, but my distraction had worked, the old wolf had the time to grab her head between his enormous jaws and rip it from her shoulders, just as I saw from the corner of my eye two young boys shudder and rip apart into their own wolves. Me/not me faded into black to the sound of the three wolves tearing Victoria into pieces.
Once again the scene changed completely. The village became just a single dark room, the tribe, Victoria, the wolves and me/not me became a single man and woman, terror and anger became passion and lust as the two writhed and moaned, sweat slick skin sliding over more sweat slick skin, hands and legs twisted together, grunts and groans filling the room. A magnificently toned male body, running with beads of sweat, and with a tribal tattoo clear on one bicep, roughly flipped the woman over, pulling he up onto all fours and simultaneously plunging back inside her as he fisted his hand into her hair. The screams were now of impassioned release as they come came together and once again the man's teeth cut through the skin on the back of the woman's neck, his growls somehow becoming the word "Mine" spoken in triumph. And in the corner of the room, a huge black wolf growled lowly in what I could only interpret as approval.
I shot upwards in my bed, suddenly wide awake and gasping for breath, casting my eyes wildly about the room, searching for what, I couldn't say. "Woah." I murmured under my breath. I was still panting heavily and I was coated with sweat myself. My panties were soaked with excitement and my skin was tingling all over, for the first time I had actually orgasmed in my sleep, "That dream is so HOT! I almost hope I don't work out what I'm trying to tell myself with this one, so I can keep on having it over and over again. It's certainly a fuck load better than any of the other dreams!" I reached over to my nightstand and gulped down the water I kept there, my hands shaking a little and my breath slowly returning to normal. "The body on that guy looked familiar; Sam's. even down to the tattoo. It figures I'd fill in the blanks with the best example of male physique I've seen." I looked at the glowing green numbers on my alarm clock; 4:35. Sill time to get some uninterrupted sleep before I had to get up for school. Wait, no, yesterday was Friday, so I could sleep in for a while, I wasn't due at work til 1pm. I settled back down, resolving to leave the dream analysis for the next day, and take the opportunity for now to give my body some proper, healing sleep. I let my bone-weariness pull me under, and didn't stir for the rest of the night.
When I eventually woke just before mid-day I could hear Charlie banging around downstairs in the kitchen "Oh shit. I hope he's not trying to cook down there. I don't think my body can handle food poisoning on top of everything else." I hauled myself out of bed, stiff and sore from the unaccustomed activities of the day before, And shuffled like a geriatric into the bathroom, picking up my toiletries on the way. "Huh. I never did go to the store yesterday and replace this lot." I remembered, looking at my strawberry scented shampoo and conditioner. "I'll go after work today." After showering and washing my hair, I slipped into Charlie's room and swiped another plaid shirt from his closet, before returning to my own room and dressing in a pair of faded black jeans and an old band t-shirt, pulling Charlie's shirt on over the top and rolling the sleeves up a few times. Grabbing my work name tag, and an elastic to hold my hair back once it had dried a bit, I headed downstairs to see what Charlie had been up to in the kitchen, though a smell of slightly burnt toast was giving me a clue.
"Hey Dad. How did you sleep?" I asked him as I squeezed past him to get at the fridge, hoping to find some juice.
"Pretty good, thanks. How about you? You're looking a little less drained today, do I assume you managed to get some proper sleep in the end?" He asked, still fiddling around with something on the stove. I opened the fridge to grab the juice. No luck. It was pretty much empty, except for a couple of eggs, some very tired looking ham slices, and a dribble of milk left in the bottom of the carton. Sighing, I closed the fridge and turned to find Charlie putting a plate holding a couple of slightly singed grilled cheese sandwiches down on the table.
"Yeah I actually did, thanks." I gave him a small smile, and flopped down into my usual seat at the table, wincing as the bruises from the day before made themselves known. "This looks great, thanks, Dad" I said, gesturing at the grilled cheese, and grabbed one off the plate, juggling it from hand to hand to stop my fingers from burning.
"Oh hold on, let me get you a plate" Charlie quickly grabbed one for me from the cupboard and I gratefully dropped my sandwich onto it and blew on my fingers.
"I hope you don't mind, but I raided your closet again." I plucked at the collar of my shirt to show him what I meant and he chuckled at me.
"No that's fine, kiddo. Though I guess I'd better put a load in the machine if I'm going to be going through all my shirts twice as fast as usual." He sat down with me and started tucking into his own sandwich. "So did you decide to go to work after all today then?" He asked, eyeing my name tag where I'd dropped it on the table.
"If that's ok with you, Dad?" I was suddenly worried he'd be offended. Had he planned something for us to do together today? "If not, I'm sure I can call Mrs Newton..."
"No no, it's fine." Charlie waved off my offer "I've got a ton of stuff I can get on with today, I was just checking you felt up to working, but if you're sure you'll be ok, then that's great." I nodded in agreement and, picking up my plate to take it to the sink I added
"I figured I'd go to the store on the way home, stock up the kitchen a little." He smile ruefully "is there anything in particular you wanted for dinner tonight? I feel like cooking." I offered and his face lit up hopefully.
"How about lasagne? I've always loved your lasagne, no one else's can match it."
"Sure, dad. No problem at all. If you think of anything else, just call my cell phone and I'll add it to my list. I'd better head out or I'll be late. Thanks for brunch." I stood up stiffly and picked up my name tag and elastic, pulling my hair back into a ponytail as I walked into the hallway. My purple D.M.s from the day before we're standing next to the radiator, fully dried out from the day before, and I smiled at Charlie's thoughtfulness in making sure they'd be ready to wear again whenever I wanted them. Stepping into them, I grabbed my cell phone from the sideboard drawer and bent to tie them up, groaning slightly as my stiff and sore muscles protested. "Ok, I'm off now, bye, Dad. See you later!" I called over my shoulder and went out into the drizzling rain to my truck.
On Saturday afternoons, Mrs Newton always did the weekly stock count, and depending on how busy it was, either Mike or I were often drafted into the back to help out. I guess that with my autopilot Bella persona of late, I'd been almost the perfect assistant for a stock take - doing precisely as asked with no chit-chat to distract her as she trotted up the exact number of metal tent pegs, mosquito repellent sprays and bootlaces. So it seemed to be automatically assumed as soon as I walked in the door this afternoon that that was how I'd be spending my time today.
"Afternoon, Bella. Straight out back with me again today, please." Mrs Newton said as soon as she saw me, and accompanied her request with a hold and turn of my shoulders and a gentle shove in the right direction. "Wow. Is that ever going to get old fast!" I bitched to myself, though I knew I had no one but myself to blame for it. "Time to let them know the zombie has left the building, I guess." I turned back to her and offered her a small smile.
"Sure, Mrs Newton, no problem. But do you mind if I grab a quick coffee to take with me? We've run out at home and I really could do with a caffeine fix." I left her and Mike standing open mouthed as I headed back to the little staff room behind the cash register to fix myself a cup. "Anyone else want one while I'm here?"
"N... No, thanks though." Mike stuttered, echoed by his mother, and I picked up my drink, along with a pen and clipboard and walked towards the stockroom.
"Shall we get started then?" I asked the still stunned Mrs Newton over my shoulder, and she closed her mouth with a snap and started walking along behind me.
We were halfway through the stock take before Mrs Newton finally followed up the side-long glances she'd been sending my way with an actual question.
"So, Bella honey, how are you doing? You seem a little more ... lively than you've usually been lately. Has anything exciting been going on at home?" She was studiously keeping her head down, but I could see her darting the odd look my way to see how I took her question. I smiled internally, but kept my face completely pleasant but blank.
"No, not really. Just the same old stuff as usual." I refused to give the Forks gossip circle any more ammo than they'd already gleaned, and Mrs Newton was practically the chairwoman of the nosy brigade. If I'd thought for a moment she was actually asking out of concern, I would've tried to find some kind of platitude to feed her, but as it was, I was just going to go with 'nothing to see here' until she gave up on the issue. "Why? Has there been anything exciting going on in town?" Maybe re-directing her with her favourite topic - gossip - was the way to go. It worked.
"Oh my, yes." She said excitedly, leaning forward as if sharing something top secret. "There have been hikers going missing for the last two months. It's up to five now, and only one has been found. Well I say they've been found, but what I mean is their body was found. Looked like an animal attack apparently. But two weeks ago the fifth hiker went missing. I don't know what the police department are playing at. Surely they could put down their doughnuts long enough to..." She broke off suddenly. Obviously just now realising just who she was talking to, and who my dad was. "Yes well anyway. It's a very sad business. Their poor families." She finished off lamely. I gave her I tight, fake smile.
"Yes. It's an awful thing to happen. Have we got any signs up or flyers going out to help with the search? After all, it our customers who are most likely to either be in danger of being attacked by this animal themselves, or to maybe help in the search for those already missing." I knew there were none up in the store. Maybe it was a cheap shot, but I was disgusted at her excitement at the expense of the poor missing hikers, like the gossip was the only important factor. Her rudeness about the Forks police had also seriously grated on my nerves. So yeah, cheap shot perhaps, but she started it.
"Well no, dear, we haven't." She replied, a bit flustered. "I did give it some thought, but it would be bad for business you know. It might scare people away from going out in the forest, and therefore from buying hiking and camping equipment, so I decided against it." I couldn't help the look of shocked outrage on my face at her thoughts. "Selfish, greedy bitch!" I tried hard to rein my anger in, to swallow my retort, but the words came bubbling, hot and angry, out of my throat before I could stop them.
"No, quite right, Mrs Newton. You wouldn't want to miss out on a couple of hundred bucks just to help save a few lives, or to put the questions of the families of the missing hikers to rest; that's just not sound business sense." I raged. "No, it's much more sensible to do nothing to help, but instead spend as much time as possible bad mouthing the police department, who actually are working hard to try to find the missing, and prevent any more people from meeting the same fate." She stared at me with gaped mouthed astonishment as I ranted. I took off my name badge and handed it to her. "I think I'd better leave. I'm sure my dad could use some help on the weekends and after school." I shrugged, then widened my eyes in a sarcastic parody of sudden realisation. "Oh! Or I could work at the diner. I'm sure they need help supplying all those doughnuts to the police."
With that, I spun on my heel and stormed (hiding my winces from my sore muscles) out past Mike, through the door, with its glaring lack of missing posters, climbed into my truck and sped off, my truck protesting the mistreatment until I rounded the first bend and let my foot ease up on the gas a little.
I'm not entirely sure how that happened; At the beginning of this chapter I had no plans of Bella doing something so out of character. She just sort of took over a bit there and ran off in her own direction. Oh well. I'm sure she has a plan. I can only hope she'll share it with me as I tackle the next chapter. :0)